Pluractionality, iconicity, and scope in French Sign Language

Kuhn, Jeremy; Aristodemo, Valentina

doi:10.3765/sp.10.6

Cited by 28 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(26 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A single language may have pluractional morphemes that specify different distributive keys. For example, in French Sign Language (LSF), ‐rep (exact repetition) requires distribution across time, and ‐alt (alternating hands) requires distribution across participants (Kuhn & Aristodemo, ). Sentence (7), for example, becomes ungrammatical with singular object “ ONE WORD .” ONE PERSON FORGET ‐rep ONE WORD .“One person forgot one word repeatedly.” ONE PERSON FORGET ‐alt SEVERAL WORDS .“One person forgot several words.” (LSF, Kuhn & Aristodemo, ) …”

Section: Dimensions Of Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… (15) The children each brought one book. A gyerekek hoztak egy‐egy könyvet.“The children brought one‐one book.” (Hungarian, Farkas, ) (16) My friends each arrived. MY FRIENDS ARRIVE ‐alt. (LSF, Kuhn & Aristodemo, ) …”

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…V ( e ) ∧ | e | > 1 ∧ …“Given a predicate V , return the set of nonatomic V ‐ing events.”(cf. Lasersohn, ; Kuhn & Aristodemo, )…”

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across a variety of languages, a number of authors have observed that pluractional morphemes do not have this property (see; Yu, for Chechen, van Geenhoven, for West Greenlandic, Laca, for Spanish, Henderson, for Kaqchikel, Kuhn & Aristodemo, for French Sign Language). The French Sign Language pair in (21) illustrates the contrast between distributive operators and pluractional markers in this respect.…”

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…"> JEAN ONE WORD FORGET ‐rep. *many words ✓ one word“Jean forgot one word repeatedly.” (LSF, Kuhn & Aristodemo, ) Bomba lilxirabomb.SG explode.PLR“A/the bomb exploded repeatedly.” (Chechen, Wood, )…”

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Pluractionality and distributive numerals

Kuhn

2019

Language and Linguist. Compass

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cross‐linguistically, morphological marking on verbs and nouns can indicate that a plurality of events or individuals is distributed with respect to another plurality. In the verbal domain, these have been called pluractionals; in the nominal domain, they have been called distributive numerals or dependent indefinites. This paper discusses recent semantic approaches to the cross‐domain parallels between the two phenomena. After establishing some formal and typological background, we introduce a number of recent compositional challenges that have been introduced by these patterns.

show abstract

Section: Dimensions Of Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…V ( e ) ∧ | e | > 1 ∧ …“Given a predicate V , return the set of nonatomic V ‐ing events.”(cf. Lasersohn, ; Kuhn & Aristodemo, )…”

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plurality Filtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Pluractionality and distributive numerals

Kuhn

2019

Language and Linguist. Compass

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Iconic plurality

Schlenker

Lamberton

2018

Linguist and Philos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ASL (American Sign Language) can express plurals by repeating a noun, in an unpunctuated fashion, in different parts of signing space. We argue that this construction may come with a rich (and at-issue) iconic component: the geometric arrangement of the repetitions provides information about the arrangement of the denoted plurality; in addition, the number and speed of the repetitions provide information about the size of the denoted plurality. Interestingly, the shape of the repetitions may introduce a new singular discourse referent when a vertex can be inferred to denote a singular object. Thus one may point towards the first or last iteration of a horizontal repetition of BOOK to denote the left-or right-edge of the corresponding row. This yields a remarkable interaction between iconic semantics and standard logical semantics. We show that our analysis extends to 'punctuated' repetitions, which involve clearly individuated iterations of a singular noun. While these may initially look like coordinated indefinites, they are better handled by the same iconic framework as plural, unpunctuated repetitions. Some repetition-based mass terms also give rise to iconic effects, and to different readings depending on whether the repetition is continuous, unpunctuated, or punctuated. Our analysis highlights the need for a formal semantics with iconicity to study the integration of such iconic and logical conditions. It also raises a question: can similar facts be found in spoken language when gestures are taken into account? We suggest that several effects can be replicated, especially when one considers examples involving 'pro-speech gestures' (= gestures that fully replace some spoken expressions).

show abstract

Meaningful Blurs: the sources of repetition-based plurals in ASL

Schlenker

Lamberton

2021

Linguist and Philos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In several sign languages, plurals can be realized with unpunctuated or punctuated repetitions of a noun, with different semantic implications; similar repetitionbased plurals have been described in some homesigns and silent gestures. Unpunctuated repetitions often get approximate 'at least' readings while punctuated repetitions typically correspond to 'exactly' readings. The prevalence of these mechanisms could be thought to be a case in which Universal Grammar does not just specify the abstract properties of grammatical elements, but also their phonological realization, at least in the visual modality. We explore an alternative in which punctuated and unpunctuated repetitions arise from general properties of iconic representations. On an empirical level, we argue that in ASL (American Sign Language), punctuated and unpunctuated repetitions are unlikely to be an exclusively grammatical mechanism, as they can be found with purely iconic (word-free) representations. On a theoretical level, we argue for a modular account with three components. First, repetition-based plurals can create a simplified pictorial representation. Second, unpunctuated repetitions give rise to pictorial vagueness, resolved by way of quantification over precisifications. Third, a pragmatic process involving strategic reasoning maps these vague representations onto a set of candidate linguistic meanings, including some 'at least' plural readings that are best expressed by unpunctuated repetitions.

show abstract

Pluractionality, iconicity, and scope in French Sign Language

Cited by 28 publications

References 31 publications

Pluractionality and distributive numerals

Pluractionality and distributive numerals

Iconic plurality

Meaningful Blurs: the sources of repetition-based plurals in ASL

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About